[Delta Wave]

I recently picked up a Magnepan arm w/ a Denon 305 cartridge mounted on it. The cantilever is missing. Anyone have any experience with these? Would it be worth sending to Soundsmith for a retip?

[neobop]

Predecessor to the 304, the 305 might have a non-magnetic core like the 304 and DL-S1. Output is .2mV and impedance is 40 ohms. Unlike these later carts, the 305 has (had) a boron cantilever and special elliptical.  Hi compliance - VTF is 1.2g +/- .2.  Response was out to 75KHz.  List was $600 back in '80.

This cart has great potential, but be careful what you have done to rebuild.  I had a 304 and Soundsmith fitted a ruby/LC (level 2) on there. The sound was super detailed, but relentless/unforgiving. I had to adjust VTA, literally for every record.  I never experienced this before.  It was as if the slightest anomaly was emphasized over and above the musical content. The 304 and DL-S1 have thin alum cantilevers and I suspect you'll get better results at Soundsmith either with level 1 - alum/elliptical, or level 3 - ruby/micro. I really think level 1 is your best bet.

The Unitrac arm was often paired with hi cu Denons. Mine came with a 103 D, hi cu version.  The 304 was better in a med mass arm (12 to 14g), despite the hi cu.  You'll have better results in a similar med mass arm IMO.  The Unitrac has eff mass of 7g and is really good with most hi cu carts, the better Shures, Stantons, ATs etc.  Also, carts w high impedance and very low output can sometimes interact badly with phono stages with extended bandwidth and few internal capacitors. You can get hi freq ringing or oscillation. This might be rare, but I experienced this with my AHT and had to use another phono pre.  Good luck with it.
neo
 

[Delta Wave]

Lots of excellent info, thanks Neo! 

[blakep]

This cart has great potential, but be careful what you have done to rebuild.  I had a 304 and Soundsmith fitted a ruby/LC (level 2) on there. The sound was super detailed, but relentless/unforgiving. I had to adjust VTA, literally for every record.  I never experienced this before.  It was as if the slightest anomaly was emphasized over and above the musical content. The 304 and DL-S1 have thin alum cantilevers and I suspect you'll get better results at Soundsmith either with level 1 - alum/elliptical, or level 3 - ruby/micro. I really think level 1 is your best bet.

Yes, if that was your issue, I would think Level 1 would be the better choice. By all accounts the Level 3 is even more detailed and demanding in terms of setup.

Just curious: what VTF were you using and did you give the retipped cartridge 25-30 hours to break-in? Sounds like you sold it-do you still have it?

[Delta Wave]

Also the 305 is not necessarily going back on the Unitrack arm, I have a few tables I'm restoring with a few different arm choices. From the sound of it, it may be a good match for my Black Widow arm.
 

[neobop]

Also the 305 is not necessarily going back on the Unitrack arm, I have a few tables I'm restoring with a few different arm choices. From the sound of it, it may be a good match for my Black Widow arm.

I don't think that's a good idea.  If you try it, let us know how it works out. My experience with the 304, DL-S1, seems to indicate better results with med mass arms.  I don't know why this is exactly, but I think it has to do with bearing stability and the arm being able to deal with cart resonances.  The Black Widow is great with high cu MMs, like a Sonus Blue/Gold or some ADC etc, but I've never heard or read about a successful pairing with a hi cu Denon MC.  The open vertical bearings of the Black Widow, whichever version you have, might not be appropriate. I'm guessing that the Unitrac would be much better. Is the Unitrac already mounted?  Spindle to mounting hole center is 222mm and a 57o angle should be maintained from the hole center, between spindle and straight ahead position.  Interesting, please let us know what happens.
neo 

[neobop]

Yes, if that was your issue, I would think Level 1 would be the better choice. By all accounts the Level 3 is even more detailed and demanding in terms of setup.

Just curious: what VTF were you using and did you give the retipped cartridge 25-30 hours to break-in? Sounds like you sold it-do you still have it?

Setup demands was not the issue. Peter Lederman (Soundsmith) is exacting in his repairs, it's not like I had to go to some crazy angle to nail azimuth or SRA.  The cart seemed to track, just as before. VTF used was values within recommended range, around 1.3g, I believe. The ruby/LC combo just turned out to be a bad choice.  Yes I sold it, largely because of the interaction with my main phono stage. I didn't want to invest more time and effort in what seemed like an inappropriate choice for a second system.  In my experience, once a cart is broken in, it usually takes < 10 hrs for a new suspension to settle in.  It seems that my evaluation was correct, even though I wasn't positive at the time.  The person who bought it from me resold it, and then it showed up again for sale.  With hindsight, I probably could have sent it back to Peter for an alum re-do, it's just that the ruby cantilever looks so beautiful... and I wasn't sure.
The ruby is so thin it's translucent. I was hoping it would work out for someone else.

Cantilever/tip types are part of a designers' voicing a cart. Sometimes a spicific material is used to augment frequency response or other characteristic.  Although we can generalize about sound characteristics of one material vs another, changing cantilever type is going to change the sound. After all, it the wiggles of the cantilever that excite the generator, and if you change the way it wiggles.....
neo



 

[jimdgoulding]

I don't think that's a good idea.  If you try it, let us know how it works out. My experience with the 304, DL-S1, seems to indicate better results with med mass arms.  I don't know why this is exactly, but I think it has to do with bearing stability and the arm being able to deal with cart resonances.  The Black Widow is great with high cu MMs, like a Sonus Blue/Gold or some ADC etc, but I've never heard or read about a successful pairing with a hi cu Denon MC.  The open vertical bearings of the Black Widow, whichever version you have, might not be appropriate. I'm guessing that the Unitrac would be much better. Is the Unitrac already mounted?  Spindle to mounting hole center is 222mm and a 57o angle should be maintained from the hole center, between spindle and straight ahead position.  Interesting, please let us know what happens.
neo

I second Neo's post here.  I think your cart will like an arm with more mass.

[Delta Wave]

I don't think that's a good idea.  If you try it, let us know how it works out. My experience with the 304, DL-S1, seems to indicate better results with med mass arms.  I don't know why this is exactly, but I think it has to do with bearing stability and the arm being able to deal with cart resonances.  The Black Widow is great with high cu MMs, like a Sonus Blue/Gold or some ADC etc, but I've never heard or read about a successful pairing with a hi cu Denon MC.  The open vertical bearings of the Black Widow, whichever version you have, might not be appropriate. I'm guessing that the Unitrac would be much better. Is the Unitrac already mounted?  Spindle to mounting hole center is 222mm and a 57o angle should be maintained from the hole center, between spindle and straight ahead position.  Interesting, please let us know what happens.
neo

I don't plan on using it right away, I'm just planning on adding it to the collection. My main deck, a Luxman PD121, has a highly modded SME 3009 S2I w/ SAE 1000lt. And I like it that way. Other deck is a Mission 775s w/ Micro Seiki TA-1 & Ortofon X5-MC. They both sound quite nice the way they are.
Other arms not being used are a Profile II, Jelco MMT, Denon DA-307, Infinity Black Widow & The Magnepan Unitrack.
I have three decks I'm restoring/modifying, Connoisseur BD1, Mission 775 & Luxman PD272.
Once I get them all up and running I'll start toying around with different arm/cart combos. I'll probably use the regular Mission 775 as the test bed.
I actually have a Sonus Blue/Gold but I lost a channel in it... I really liked that cartridge too, it was a tad on the critical side but it did everything else right.